Families Victimized by Brutal, Murdering Cops Say: STOP THE EXECUTION OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
9/17/99
We are parents and other family members of people killed by police or racist mobs or railroaded to prison on false charges. Our experience has taught us some things about the criminal justice system in this country. We know that when the police confront young people of color at night on the streets of our cities, they often brutalize them and even kill them. We know that cops, district attorneys and judges often hide evidence of our children’s innocence and use manufactured evidence to railroad them to jail. We know that the media almost always just runs the police story and paints our children as wrong.
We work with the Oct 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality whose Stolen Lives Project has documented more than 2000 cases of people killed by law enforcement. We are well qualified to speak on the case of Mumia Abu Jamal because his experience is the same as ours. He was a victim of police brutality. Police beat his brother when they stopped his car in Philadelphia back in Dec. of 1981, and they beat and shot Mumia when he stopped to help his brother. Mumia survived, and the system charged him with murder for the death of a cop, even though witnesses said the person who shot the cop ran from the scene. The authorities hid these witnesses from the defense and bribed and intimidated other witnesses to say Mumia was guilty.
Mumia was railroaded to jail on charges of killing a cop because he is an outspoken opponent of police brutality and other forms of government injustice. He joined the Black Panther Party at the age of 14, and he’s been fighting for his people ever since. He is also a renowned journalist who uses his skill to expose what the authorities do to people who are poor and powerless. In fact, the authorities want to execute him to silence his voice. The fact that they have ignored witnesses and other evidence that has been dug up that proves Mumia’s innocence shows this to be true.
Mumia is a victim of police brutality who survived, and he’s a fighter against police brutality. We support him for both of these reasons. Mumia is a fighter for the people like Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and many others who went before him. Many of them were silenced. Mumia is still alive, and we need to do all we can to make sure the government doesn’t get away with killing him.
That’s why we as parents of police murder victims are adding our voices to the growing movement to stop his execution and free him from jail. We need his powerful voice out here on the streets with us, helping to build a movement to stop police brutality and other forms of injustice. We need many more people to join with us in calling for his freedom. Especially people with influence, many of whom are only where they are today because of the sacrifice and struggle of people like Mumia.
Think about it. Mumia is on death row for a crime he did not commit. Almost all of the police officers who killed our children are still free to walk the streets with a badge and a gun. Mumia must be set free, and the cops who murder and brutalize our children must be tried, convicted and jailed.
STOP THE EXECUTION OF MUMIA ABU JAMAL AND FREE HIM FROM JAIL!
STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION!
Signed (in formation)
New York
Nicholas Heyward Sr., father of Nicholas Jr.
Andree Smith, mother of Justin
Cleveland
Willie Horton Sr., father of Stephen
Genevieve Mitchell, mother
The Family of Michael Pipkins
Other Areas
Cornelius Hall, father of Jerrold, San Francisco
Arnetta Grable, Sr., mother of Lamar, Detroit
Emma Jones, mother of Malik, New Haven CT
Chicago
George Morris, father of Kevin
Carmen & Emilio Montanez, parents of Jose
Bertha & Knotch Escamilla, parents of Nick
Ruth Pena, sister of Angel Rodriguez
Gladys Ramirez
Mary Rodriguez, aunt of Roberto Almodor
Iris Mojica, aunt of Roberto Almodor
Bessie Perkins, mother of Frankie
Mildred Hamilton, mother of Michael Russell
Mary Reed, mother Leroy
May Artiz, mother of Salvador
Sharon LaRoy, friend of Salvador Artiz
The National Office of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality,
Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation
(888)NO BRUTALITY or 212_477_8062 Fax: 212_477_8015
Oct22@unstoppable.com
http://www.unstoppable.com/22
INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
From: Refuse & Resist! rnradmin@calyx.net
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